Daily Current Affairs: 12 November 2013

Daily Current Affairs: 12 November 2013

1) ISRO successfully completed supplementary orbit-raising operation: A day after suffering a glitch during the fourth orbit-raising operation on its Mars Orbiter Mission, ISRO today successfully completed the supplementary manoeuvre this morning, raising the spacecraft’s apogee (farthest distance from Earth) to over 1,18,000 km. After suffering a glitch during the fourth orbit-raising operation yesterday, ISRO planned for a supplementary manoeuvre at 5 a.m. to achieve the targeted apogee of one lakh km. ISRO’s PSLV C 25 successfully injected the 1,350-kg Mangalyaan Orbiter (Mars craft) into orbit around Earth some 44 minutes after a textbook launch at 2:38 p.m. from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on Tuesday last, marking the successful completion of the first stage of the Rs 450-crore mission.

2) Mann Deshi Bank founder gets Schwab Foundation award: Chetna Vijay Sinha, Director, Mann Deshi Mahila Bank and Mann Deshi Foundation, on Monday bagged the 2013 India Social Entrepreneur of the Year award by The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, a sister organisation of the World Economic Forum, in partnership with Jubilant Bhartia Foundation.

3) Haryana joins hands with Cargill to launch food bank: Haryana launched its first food bank to support various feeding programmes in Gurgaon and nearby areas on Monday. The food bank is being supported by global food major Cargill and India Food Banking Network (IFBN), initiated by Sam Pitroda, Advisor to Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations.

4) Four quakes shake Delhi: Four earthquakes shook national capital Delhi within a period of 3 hours early tuesday.

5) Park Hyatt Hyderabad named best luxury hotel: Park Hyatt Hyderabad has been named the Best New Luxury Hotel in the Country at the World Luxury Hotel Awards 2013.

6) KyaZoonga.com: Tickets for Sachin's farewell test sold out in 15 hours- A day after it crashed due to heavy traffic, Kyazoonga.com, which was to sell tickets for Sachin Tendulkar’s 200th and final Test match, today announced that all the tickets made available to them by the State cricket association were sold out within 15 hours of going on sale.

7) Idea slashes 2G data tariffs by 90%: In an attempt to further increase mobile broadband in India, Idea Cellular has slashed 2G data tariffs by 90 per cent by all its circles. Similarly, the country’s third largest operator has also reduced 3G data charges by 33 per cent.

8) K.M. Sahni is new NMCE chief: Retired bureaucrat Krishna Mohan Sahni, a 1969 batch IAS officer, has been appointed Chairman of the National Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (NMCE). His appointment has been approved by the Forward Markets Commission, which regulates commodity markets in the country.

9) SBM appoints new general managers: State Bank of Mysore (SBM) has appointed new general managers. K Nageswara Rao has taken charge as General Manager of Retail Network 1, Bangalore. Prior to this, he was zonal manager, Kollam at State Bank of Travancore.

10) FinMin expects banks to mobilise $25 b through special window: The Finance Ministry has raised its expectation on fund mobilisation by banks through the special window to $25 billion against $20 billion earlier.

11) Govt to infuse fresh capital into IOB: Indian Overseas Bank has got approval from the Ministry of Finance for infusion of capital to the extent of Rs 1,200 crore in the bank, IOB said in a filing to the exchange.

12) World Pneumonia Day was observed on 12 November 2013 across the world to raise awareness of pneumonia. The United Nations (UN) first celebrated the day on 12 November 2009. This year, the theme for World Pneumonia Day will focus on innovation – highlighting innovative solutions to end childhood pneumonia, while at the same time emphasizing that there are existing simple interventions that need to reach the most vulnerable children.

13) T.P. Seetharam, currently India's High Commissioner to Mauritius, has been appointed as the next ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. An Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of 1980 batch, Seetharam is expected to take up his assignment shortly.